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March 25, 2019(click for photo album)
By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER – Tears of surprise and gratitude marked the 12th Annual Adopt-A-Student Recognition Dinner, held March 21 at Mechanics Hall.
“I actually didn’t know that my son was going to college,” Heidi Beaulac said, still crying after most people had left. “Before this night, I knew nothing at all. Neither did my son. And the only word I can use is ‘grateful.’ … He will be the first person in my family to go to college.”
Her son Jakai Alexandre had just been granted a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to Anna Maria College in Paxton.
“It takes a lot of weight off your shoulder,” said Mr. Alexandre, a senior at St. Bernard Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg, who attended St. Anthony Elementary School in Fitchburg in grades 4-8.
“I’ve held the faith of a mustard seed, even when …t hings seemed impossible,” his mother said. “Even when I didn’t have an answer, I knew God did. And I never doubted him. Not once.”
Mr. Alexandre’s classmate Richard LaJoie knew ahead of time about the four-year, full-tuition scholarship to Assumption College that he received that night. But that didn’t stop his mother from crying.
“We had been supporting each other since freshman year because we’re both single moms,” Christina LaJoie said of herself and Ms. Beaulac. “The tears were flowing very freely at our table.”
Mr. LaJoie, a member of St. Leo Parish in Leominster who’d attended St. Leo’s Elementary, said he made the decision to go to Assumption shortly before learning of the scholarship.
“On the phone, I didn’t know what to say,” he recalled.
He was riding with a friend when he received the call, but the reception was poor when he tried to call his mother, he said.
The 20 minutes it took him to get home felt like an eternity, his mother said, noting that she’d realized he had good news, but couldn’t hear what it was over the phone.
“I definitely cried” upon hearing it, she said.
The annual dinner and its silent auction raise money for the Adopt-A-Student program to provide financial assistance to students in the diocese’s four central Catholic schools: St. Bernard’s, and, in Worcester, Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High, St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Junior/Senior High and St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary.
Since the program began 30 years ago, it has granted more than 1,300 scholarships totaling more than $4.2 million according to a welcome in the program booklet from chairman Robert R. Pape.
“This evening is an opportunity to celebrate Catholic schools and all that they offer the community,” said William Driscoll, emcee and an Adopt-A-Student steering committee member. The assistant principal at St. Peter-Marian, he said the schools “are proud to evangelize and embrace the Holy Spirit” in all endeavors.
At the dinner, Adopt-A-Student scholars received awards and the keynote speaker, Deborah O’Neil, was congratulated on her upcoming award. Mrs. O’Neil, principal of St. Bernadette Elementary School in Northborough, is to receive a “Lead. Learn. Proclaim. Award” from the National Catholic Educational Association at its conference in Chicago in April, said David Perda, superintendent of Catholic schools.
“None of us does this alone,” Mrs. O’Neil said; any of the principals could be going to Chicago.
She shared part of her story of converting to Catholicism after being sent to a Catholic high school. In college she changed her career plans to become a teacher. As a parent, she sent her children to a Catholic school after realizing there was something lacking in public school. She worked in Catholic education too. She said Catholic education is a family.
Student awardees, all seniors, were as follows: Mr. Alexandre received the Paul and Dorothy Kervick Award for Leadership; Daniel Clark, from St. Peter-Marian, received the Charles & Beth McManus Award for Academic Excellence; Alyssa Accordino, from St. Peter-Marian, received the Wilfred & Bette Iandoli Award for Service, and Clariese Natal, from Holy Name, received Bill & Kay O’Brien Award for Best Exemplifying the Values of the Adopt-A-Student Program.
The dinner also included a talk by Adopt-A-Student graduate Grace Clark; video presentations by Stephen Kaufman, diocesan production manager for TV ministry, featuring the awardees and a look back at the last 10 years, and prayers led by Bishop McManus and Father Richard F. Reidy, vicar general. The Holy Name Jazz Ensemble, directed by Daniel Gabel, entertained.
Ms. Clark, who attended St. Peter Elementary and St. Peter-Marian and received Assumption College’s scholarship, said she’s now a senior hoping to become a physician assistant.
She thanked everyone, especially her parents, and said, “Without the Adopt-A-Student program, I would not be where I am today.”
Helping the Be Like Brit organization in Haiti as a high schooler and making subsequent trips to Haiti and Uganda helped her find her mission – “to increase the accessibility of healthcare in the world” – she said.
She urged Adopt-A-Student scholars to use their Catholic education to develop themselves and find their passions, and to reflect on how they can use their lives for something bigger than themselves, remembering Luke 12:48: “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
PHOTO ALBUM
